Currently, on the Internet, information/data (content) described in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)/XML (extensible Markup Language) is distributed. As a procedure for acquiring data on the Internet, the user inputs a URI (Uniform Resource Identification name) (or URL (Uniform Resource Locator), this notation is applied in the following description)) that identifies his or her desired content on a client unit. A content corresponding to the input URI is transmitted from a web server. The URI/URL is a standard notation used to reference data distributed on WWW (World Wide Web).
In a conventional data distributing system using the Internet, to convert an input URI into a content or to interpret an input URI as a content, a DNS (Domain Name System) and a web server perform a name resolving process for the content. The name resolving process normally stands for a process for translating a domain name into an IP address or vice versa. However, in this specification, the name resolving process stands for a process for converting an identifier into a physical location of a content or interpreting an identifier as a physical location of a content.
In future, it is expected that a data broadcasting system will be established and various types of contents such as program information and program advertisement information will be distributed through a broadcasting network. To reference and identify data that is distributed by such a data broadcasting system, it is preferred to reference them with the URI format that is used in HTML documents or the like of the Internet. However, it is difficult to interpret an URI and reference a corresponding content on a broadcasting network using the same name resolving system, which uses a DNS and a web server as a conventional web. Generally, a name resolving system dedicated for a URI of a content on a broadcasting network is used.
In future, when the Internet and the broadcasting network will be further unified, it can be predicted that a content uniquely identified by a particular URI is distributed on the Internet and a plurality of digital broadcasting networks. From this point of view, it is necessary to unify the URI name resolving system for the Internet and the URI name resolving system for digital broadcasting network.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a receiving apparatus, a receiving method, and a name resolving method that allow different content name resolving systems used on various networks to be unified.